More Top Picks Best Bird Cages For Parrots
player ready...`Eatertainment” will not take over River North, declares Albert Friedman.
Already the biggest property owner in the neighborhood west of North Michigan Avenue, Friedman is planning on expanding his empire further with a major River North hotel-office-apartment project for which he is seeking a city zoning OK.
As his domain grows, he casts a wary eye at venues such as the Rainforest Cafe and Planet Hollywood that bring a carnival-type atmosphere to the area.
“I would call Rainforest an anomaly. I don’t think it’s the future of River North,” he said. “The underlying core continues to be an art gallery and fine dining district.”
He noted that an All-Star Cafe, an eatertainment venture backed by the Planet Hollywood people, pulled out of a location at Michigan and Ontario Street before it ever opened.
Even if Ontario Street becomes a corridor for “high-energy young spots,” it won’t set the tone for the rest of the district, he added.
“That’s what differentiates us from Schaumburg, where eatertainments are taking over,” he said.
Themes and variations: Friedman last week presided over the grand opening of a Hampton Inn & Suites Hotel at the corner of Dearborn and Illinois Streets, a joint venture of his Friedman Properties Ltd. and Chicago-based First Hospitality Group Inc., the nation’s largest franchisee of Hampton Inn & Suites.
Despite the Hampton name, which may connote a standardized, midrange hotel chain, the 12-story, 230-room hotel is designed to reflect both the converted old warehouses all around that area and the Prairie Style of Frank Lloyd Wright.
“The flag was important, but not from a design standpoint,” Friedman said. “It’s not like another generic place that makes everything very bland and could be in any city in the U.S. It has a classic Chicago-style profile.”
The Chicago flavor is also present in artifacts from famous Chicago buildings plus six meeting rooms named for historic Chicago architects.
There is a seventh honoring the Daley dynasty, and the late Mayor Richard J. Daley and son Mayor Richard M. are pictured among historical photos on the walls outside the meeting rooms.
That Chicago’s premier political family has become a nostalgic symbol of the true essence of Chicago is an admirable development, particularly if the Daleys replace Al Capone in the pantheon.
But curious paradoxes can arise as–and this is happening more and more–hotels adopt themes.
The old Bismarck Hotel, which is across LaSalle Street from City Hall and was truly the resort of Old Pols in the heyday of the Daley machine, has become the Hotel Allegro, which is decorated to convey an artistic flavor–particularly related to the performing arts.
And the Hampton, which is in the art gallery district of River North, commemorates politicians.
There’s a message here somewhere.
Citifying Schaumburg: Schaumburg, which, as Friedman suggested, symbolizes suburbanism, malls, eatertainment and the like to urbanites, may soon be getting spiced with its own dash of urbanity.
Chicago developer Dan McCaffery, using Chicago architects Antunovich Associates, plans to “unmall” One Schaumburg Place adjacent to Woodfield Mall to create a city-like shopping streetscape.
Called the Streets of Woodfield, the 650,000-square-foot redevelopment will result in a two-story center with new shops, restaurants and entertainment spots that face outward with individual storefronts.
“We are creating an urban environment just off Route 53–with storefronts on city streets, sidewalks, street lamps and benches–out of what used to be a long, inward-focused mall,” said McCaffery, president of CCR McCaffery Developments.
More Top Picks Beauty And Personal Care
A Corner Bakery is already open, and a 16-screen Cineplex Odeon Theater, an FAO Schwarz and a Gameworks (a Steven Spielberg-inspired restaurant and interactive game center) are hoped for, among other possible tenants.
McCaffery has worked on redeveloping the historic Reliance Building at State and Washington Streets into a hotel and on the Niketown building on North Michigan Avenue, among other projects.
Schaumburg streets that you can actually walk down. . . . What will they think of next?
Peterson past: Peterson Worldwide LLC, an international consulting firm, is moving its corporate headquarters from downtown Chicago to Oakbrook Terrace.
The firm, formerly known as Peterson Consulting LLC, with 19 offices in the U.S. and one in London, signed a 23,000-square- foot lease at One MidAmerica Plaza in the western suburb.